ARTICLES ABOUT EAST JERUSALEM BY DATE - PAGE 3

Take a globe and start at Pakistan. Trace your way west through Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and then stop at a tiny sliver of a country bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Or start in the Indian Ocean and travel through Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Jordan until you come to that same point. Or travel east through the Islamic nations of northern Africa until you finally reach Egypt, and then continue northwest. All three paths lead you to Israel, a nation smaller than New Jersey.

By now we are all acquainted with the recent "slap in the face" that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered to Vice President Biden when he recently visited Jerusalem. Upon his arrival Netanyahu's government announced plans to build 1,600 new Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem against the explicit wishes of our government. While Biden was still in Israel Haaretz reported that the Netanyahu government had plans to increase that number to 50,000. These moves obviously undermine chances for a bilateral peace agreement with the Palestinians who want to have East Jerusalem as the capital of their independent state.

Almost every week you can find longtime local political activist Bob Kunst all over South Florida protesting the Obama administration's Israel policy. On April 18 and 19, Yom Hazikaron (Israel's Memorial Day) and Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israel's Independence Day), respectively, Kunst will be demonstrating in front of the White House. A "life-long Democrat" who campaigned for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the 2008 election, Kunst takes President Barack Obama and his Jewish advisors to task for dictating to Israel and for advocating a two-state solution and the division of Jerusalem.

Secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton knows she's right. The Israeli-Palestinian status quo is unsustainable, she told the large audience, greeted by some cheers, at the recent AIPAC conference in Washington. "New construction in East Jerusalem," she continued. "undermines America's unique ability to play a role — an essential role, I might add — in the peace process." Scattered applause from part of the audience. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can't admit she's right.

An alleged growing rift in the so-called "special relationship" between the U.S. and Israel is making international headlines. In fact, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's May 18 meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, which was closed to the press and without the usual photo opts, the Washington Post noted that Netanyahu was treated like, "some third world country despot." Another sign of a developing chill between the two allies is illustrated by the fallout following the announcement of Israel's plans to build 1,600 new housing units in disputed East Jerusalem, just as Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on a Mideast peacemaking trip.

Please demand that Israel stop building any future developments in East Jerusalem until a peace agreement is reached with the Palestinians. I am Jewish and a Zionist and love Israel enough to criticize Israel when it is wrong. The United States must demand that the Palestinians stop inciting hatred and come to the bargaining table with the intent to end this decades-long crisis. We must demand the same of Israel. Marc Paige, Fort Lauderdale

I would like to respond to the Feb. 7 letter, "Israel defending itself." Criticizing or questioning actions taken by the state of Israel do not automatically mean the speaker is anti-Semitic any more than criticism or questioning of our own government automatically make one anti-American. Richard Goldstone, the judge who found that Israelis and Palestinians have committed war crimes, is highly respected in all quarters and held in high esteem for his fairness and impartiality.

It was supposed to be a goodwill trip to generate Mideast peacemaking. Instead, what developed kicked off a diplomatic controversy that embarrassed both Israel and United States, and left further peace negotiations up in the air. On March 9, just as Vice President Joe Biden arrived In Israel to meet with Israeli and Arab leaders and push peacekeeping efforts, Eli Yishai, Israeli interior minister, announced plans to build 1,600 new housing...

By Abraham H. Foxman On some level, it couldn't have been worse. We have a situation where the most trusted member of the U.S. administration, Vice President Joe Biden, is in Israel seeking to win over the hearts and minds of the Israeli public which, according to the polls, is highly suspicious of the Obama government. And in his opening public remarks, the vice president shows he's cognizant of the need by the administration to state more clearly and vociferously than it had heretofore that the American-Israeli special relationship is as strong as ever.

There seems to have been a mistake made when President Barack Obama named former Sen. George J. Mitchell his special representative concerned with settlement of the Palestinian-Israel impasse. The president and Mr. Mitchell seem to have believed that the problem is one of negotiation between adamantly opposed but ultimately reconcilable parties. It is reasonable to make that assumption, and George Mitchell's most imposing achievement was his success in Northern Ireland, as the Clinton administration intermediary between the Provisional IRA and the Northern Irish loyalist community.